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Design Considerations for Using Flexible Buried Bridges in Lieu of Conventional Bridges
Course Information
Structural-plate buried structures consist of multiple metal plates that are corrugated, shaped to a specific curvature, hot-dipped galvanized (when made of steel), and bolted together in the field to construct large culvert or clear-span arch bridge crossings. After assembly, they are backfilled using granular soil to complete the bridge crossing. They are considered flexible structures that work via soil-structure interaction, where the structure and surrounding engineered backfill work together to support the design loads.
Structural plate has been in use for more than 90 years. It originally served as a large-diameter alternative to corrugated metal pipe (CMP) for use in hydraulic applications where CMP could not be efficiently built large enough to satisfy hydraulic requirements or where bottomless (arch- or box-shaped) structures were needed. Original corrugation profiles were relatively shallow (6” x 2” or 9” x 2.5”), which limited the available structural-plate span length.
Author
Joel Hahm, P.E.Learning Objectives
At the conclusion of this article, the reader should be able to understand/perform the following:
• Know what is considered a flexible buried bridge.
• Recognize applications where a flexible buried bridge can be considered.
• How to evaluate site, design and construction considerations for a flexible buried bridge.
• Benefits of a flexible buried bridge compared to a conventional bridge.
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